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Switzerland, the most neutral country in the world, will freeze assets of the Russian president and his cabinet, as well as slap sanctions on Russian people and companies to punish the country for invading Ukraine, Reuters reported.

Switzerland's action represents a sharp deviation away from its traditional neutral stance and is more than just symbolic.

It adopted financial sanctions against Russian president Vladimir Putin, prime minister Mikhail Mishustin and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, effective immediately, which will freeze their assets alongside 367 other individuals already sanctioned by the European Union, The New York Times reported.

Switzerland also closed its airspace to most Russian aircraft.

It added that it had also banned five oligarchs close to Putin from entering the country, without naming them.

The sanctions are similar to what the EU has imposed.

Russians held nearly 10.4 billion Swiss francs (S$15.36 billion) -- not significant, but not insignificant either -- in Switzerland in 2020, Swiss National Bank data show, according to Reuters.

Announcement at news conference

"We are in an extraordinary situation where extraordinary measures could be decided," President and Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis told a news conference in Bern on Monday, Feb. 28.

He was flanked by the finance, defence and justice ministers.

Switzerland said it was departing from its usual policy of neutrality but was willing to mediate in the conflict, NYT reported

Swiss neutrality remained intact, Cassis said, but "of course we stand on the side of Western values," he added.

He added that Switzerland's credibility as a neutral diplomatic intermediary would suffer if it automatically followed suit with EU sanctions initially, NYT also reported, providing some cover as to why Switzerland did not act earlier.

The Swiss government faced growing pressure from the EU, the United States, and thousands of protesters who marched in Bern on Saturday, Feb. 26 against Russia.

Top photos via Russia state broadcast & Unsplash

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